BU vs CU

[shaunguth]

Next year will be a long year.There is no way we can replace Ruff,Crouch,and Salley.

I don't think it's a big reach to think Austin can replace Salley.

[AE Braves Fan]

I would expect almost an identical record next year, with a possible title run the following year.

[Beninator]

Barring injury, I actually think that we will be better next year.

[Guinness]

I would expect almost an identical record next year, with a possible title run the following year.

I think we wont do as good as we did this year. (And this year wasnt as good as last year, and last year surely wasnt as good as the year before it).

Definite slide time.

[pfunk880]

But one thing I noticed, it would have been a lot easier for these guys to just go through the motions when they got down by 18 points, but they never gave up. I am proud how they fought back.

The problem is it seemed like they got down by 18 because they were going through the motions.

They were in this situation way too many times this year. UIC, Vanderbilt, and last week @Creighton come immediately to mind. We dug ourselves big holes in those games, fought all the way back, but ultimately couldn't quite get it done.

I think that even if we would have pulled today's game out, it would have taken so much out of them that Drake would have been an absolutely daunting task.

[bu fan 9]

This year would of been better than last year but we had Ruff and Warren to many games.

[ER3]

Let's recruit some more depth, and hope we don't have the injuries we had this year. BU will be back next year.

We need to recruit more than just depth players at this point. We cannot afford to have complete recruiting whiffs like Collins and Cole-Scott over the next two years or we are going to dig ourselves a huge hole, and secure our place in the middle of the Valley for the foreseeable future.

[VeveJones007]

We need to recruit more than just depth players at this point. We cannot afford to have complete recruiting whiffs like Collins and Cole-Scott over the next two years or we are going to dig ourselves a huge hole, and secure our place in the middle of the Valley for the foreseeable future.

I don't think the recruitment of Collins and Cole-Scott was the problem. It was getting commitments and counting on players that weren't academically eligible/qualified. We need Les to be a little more careful and really settle on guys that are better students.

[TheAsianSensation]

I'd call ourselves 2-1 dogs to make the CBI, FWIW.

[BUBraves2006]

I know we lose two great players (and one role player-starter), but we still will retun a good core with Maniscalco, Warren and Wilson. Assuming Austin will start (and I see no reason why he can't provide similar stat lines to Salley with more playing time and less missed layups), we only will really need to find one more starter. If we're going small it'll be Dunson. Remember, Wilson was the total afterthought of the recruiting class by Coach Les and he turned out to be the biggest contributor of our recruiting class. Maybe there's one more great find on the horizon! Remember we also will have Anthony Thompson and a more mature Will Egolf and improving Cole-Scott (nobody can deny he improved a lot late in the season, even after struggling mightily before then).

It's not like we're going to just slip into a Thursday night team next year!

[ER3]

I don't think the recruitment of Collins and Cole-Scott was the problem. It was getting commitments and counting on players that weren't academically eligible/qualified. We need Les to be a little more careful and really settle on guys that are better students.

We need Les to find guys that are better players...
This team had zero depth. With Cole-Scott, Collins, Egolf, and Austin giving us little or no production, we were doomed to mediocrity.
Maniscalco and Wilson were solid and they will be cornerstones of next year's team...but getting basically nothing out of 4 of your 6 recruits this year really hurt.

[Beninator]

I don't think the recruitment of Collins and Cole-Scott was the problem. It was getting commitments and counting on players that weren't academically eligible/qualified. We need Les to be a little more careful and really settle on guys that are better students.

I agree. We took too many risks last year with people who did not qualify and it turned out to bite us badly... So far this year as I see it, we have taken one risk recruiting wise but that risk is hedged with the guards we have recruited as well as the returning guards for next year.

[ER3]

Remember we also will have Anthony Thompson and a more mature Will Egolf and improving Cole-Scott (nobody can deny he improved a lot late in the season, even after struggling mightily before then).

It's not like we're going to just slip into a Thursday night team next year!

I think we will be able to put together a nice starting 5 next year...but I fear we will have problems coming up with more than 7 guys to give us quality minutes again next year...

I don't see the remarkable improvement in Cole-Scott at the end of the season that you do...He was forced into playing more minutes with Warrn and Ruff out...but basically he had one decent game against UWM and was lousy against SIU and Creighton twice to end the year...He really has a lot of work to do on his shooting mechanics if he is going to be a factor at all on the perimeter next year...He is athletic, so there is hope that he could be a weapon for us next year...but this year was a total disaster for him.

[ER3]

I agree. We took too many risks last year with people who did not qualify and it turned out to bite us badly... So far this year as I see it, we have taken one risk recruiting wise but that risk is hedged with the guards we have recruited as well as the returning guards for next year.

But we were still picked to be a top 2 team in the Valley and an NCAA contending team long after Williams, Brown, Fears, Buycks, etc. were out of the picture. I don't think it is valid to use that as an excuse.
The problem is that all the depth and talent we were thought to have just didn't pan out...and TCS, Collins, Egolf, and Austin were a large part of that underacheivement of this year's team.

[Beninator]

But we were still picked to be a top 2 team in the Valley and an NCAA contending team long after Williams, Brown, Fears, Buycks, etc. were out of the picture. I don't think it is valid to use that as an excuse.
The problem is that all the depth and talent we were thought to have just didn't pan out...and TCS, Collins, Egolf, and Austin were a large part of that underacheivement of this year's team.

--I didnt really mean to use our recruiting risks last year as an excuse...just using this point as an example as to what we should not do in the future. I believe that we still should take risks when we recruit players, but we shouldnt take the risks to the degree in which we have to recruit so many players in the Spring signing period to the degree that we did last year. Looking back from memory (which is a dangerous thing ) I believe that TCS being a Brave is a direct result of our recruiting risks from last year.